Widespread obesity and excessive weight gain have become widely recognized as an emerging global pandemic. Data recently published by the World Health Organization estimates that in 2007, 1.6 billion people (one in four) were overweight or obese. Four hundred million of these were children. Modern societies are being crippled with the associated costs of overburdened healthcare systems that are crumbling beneath the weight of out-of-control medical costs associated with managing the numerous life-threatening and often fatal diseases associated with excessive weight. Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, stroke, hypertension, age-related eye diseases, along with heart, liver and kidney disease are significantly prevalent co-morbid conditions that plague this population.
Weight management was once considered only an issue of vanity. Now it has escalated into a health crisis of unprecedented proportion. Currently, thousands of products and technologies have been commercialized to assist overweight and obese people in their goal to lose and manage their weight. However, the issue of residual post-prandial hunger remains an unsolved and fundamental issue for most calorie-restricted diets and weight loss plans. Despite the best of intentions, the “battle of the bulge” is rarely won. The seeds of defeat lay in the fact that weight control is regulated by numerous redundant hormonal systems that are dedicated to preserving weight. In addition, calorie restriction in human physiology causes the generation of “hunger” pains, headaches, nausea and other deprivation sensations which are often so severe that it becomes nearly impossible for most dieting persons to control their urge to eat through the sheer exercise of their willpower alone.
Although numerous attempts have been made to promote a feeling of “fullness” or satiety, when the stomach is not in fact filled with food, each proposed means has encountered difficulties in achieving a desired level of practical success. High fiber diets require the consumption of substantial volumes of material leading to large increases in flatulence, abdominal discomfort and increased elimination volumes. Central nervous system stimulants have severe and occasionally fatal side effects. Thickening agents and rheological modifiers have minimal efficacy. Surgical procedures, while often effective, are risky and very expensive.
Therefore, there exists in the art an ongoing need for safe and effective compositions and methods that allow individuals to reduce caloric intake to lose weight while also minimizing the residual hunger which leads to a relapse of overeating. The present invention seeks to address one or more of these needs in the art.